Sharks going for their fifth consecutive win at 5 p.m. against Vancouver while the Canucks are going for their fifth consecutive victory at HP Pavilion.

And Patrick Marleau is going for his fifth multiple-goal game.

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I asked Marleau if he’s being treated any differently at home now that he’s tied the 1917 mark of four consecutive multi-goal games to start a season accomplished by Cy Denneny of the original Ottawa Senators.

“My oldest knows what’s going on,” said Marleau, referring to 6-year-old Landon. “He asked me why I didn’t get the third one. He told me I should have shot on one play.”

****The Canucks stumbled at the start with losses to Anaheim and Edmonton, the latter in a shootout. But Vancouver has won its last two games, including a 5-0 revenge thumping of Anaheim on Friday night.

“We spent a lot more time watching Vancouver the last two games than the first two,” Todd McLellan said. “It’s tough to get out of the gate when the gun goes off, trying to find chemistry, trying to get the goaltending settled in. A lot of teams have struggled with that. But they’ve looked like the Vancouver Canucks the last two games and that’s what we’re basing our assessment on.”

Corey Schneider, who shut out the Ducks on Friday night, is back in net again for Vancouver.

*****Sharks rookie Matt Irwin grew up and developed his game in British Columbia before heading to UMass-Amherst, and the fact he scored his first goal in that 4-0 victory over Colorado sparked extra interest from the Vancouver media.

He’d been to Canucks games growing up, but he also went to GM Place as a Sharks fan during the 2011 playoffs.

No, he didn’t wear Sharks gear, but, yes, he stood up and cheered when San Jose scored. At 6-foot-2, 210 pounds, he said nobody gave him a hard time.

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Irwin said he heard from a lot of his Worcester buddies as well as family and friends from elsewhere after his 52-foot slap shot sailed into the Colorado goal at 17:05 of the second period.

“The guys in Worcester actually had a game and with the time change, they were at the rink. So they were just getting ready and I think a lot of them got to see it live,” Irwin said. “I’m glad they got to see it and they were really happy for me.”

Four games into his NHL career, Irwin scoffed at the idea the adrenaline wasn’t flowing as much as it was opening night.

“I don’t think you’ve got to work to get yourself jacked up,” he said. “You skate out of that shark head and if you’re not jacked up, I don’t know, there’s something wrong. It’s pretty exciting it’s a lot of fun to play up here. It’s fun to play in front of big crowds, be in close games, help the team, contribute and get the win.”

Like his defense partner, Dan Boyle, Irwin was an undrafted college player. And Boyle said it’s possible that adds to the drive to succeed in the NHL.

“I just think some people are born to be competitive and then, when you add on top of that, being passed over for what you want to do, you certainly have a chip on your shoulder,” Boyle said. “Mine’s still there 13 or 14 years later.”

“At the time I thought it was a good hit. Saw it a couple times last night and I still thought that,” Stuart said.

Later he added it was good to be able to have a positive impact on a game early in his second go-round with the Sharks.

“To do something like that at home was nice,” Stuart said. “The team responded well, the power play has been clicking for us so that was huge.”

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.